Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is alleged to have tipped off the Manhattan madam who was in court this week on prostitution charges about an impending crackdown on brothels in the city in 2005.

Spitzer is accused of being a client of Anna Gristina, who is accused of raking in $10million from a high-class prostitution service she ran from a Manhattan apartment for 15 years, and was blamed today for the reason why she was not arrested in the FBI sting five years ago.

Kristin Davis, who ran a Manhattan call-girl service used by the disgraced former governor, said she shared a booker, Winnie Wong, with Gristina.

Humiliation: Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer addressed the media with his wife Silda Wall in March 2008 to announce his resignation from office after revelations that he had been a client of a prostitution ring

Charged: Anna Gristina, 44, appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday in a formal suit and glasses, a far cry from the sultry pose in the half-naked pictures with her husband

Wong told Davis about Spitzer's warning, according to Fox News, which prompted Gristina to shut down her agency Fleur d' Elite and skip the country.

Meanwhile, the Morgan Stanley investment banker accused of financing Gristina has been suspended from his job pending an investigation.

He denies he had anything other than a 'social' relationship with her but claims he was not the only banker who had worked with her.

David Walker, a broker for Morgan Stanley, was allegedly in talks with Gristina over plans to set up an online prostitution business, and the pair were meeting at the time she was arrested, according to police. He denies anything other than a personal relationship with her, calling her the 'mom-next-door'.

He has now been placed on administrative leave until an investigation is concluded, according to a source.

Racy: Anna Gristina poses seductively with her third husband Kelvin Gorr, a photo she posted online as she boasted to her friends back in Scotland that she was 'building an empire' in New York

Denial: David Walker, a Morgan Stanley broker pictured at the door to his apartment on Wednesday, says he had no business dealings with Gristina

When confronted by reporters from DNAinfo.com yesterday, he denied that she had been engaged in any illegal activities.

'I'm surprised at having to answer these questions,' he said. 'She was the mom-next-door.'

THE BOASTINGS OF A MANHATTAN MADAM

Secretly recorded conversations used by police in the investigation against Anna Gristina, 44, hear her boasting about her 'well-connected friends' and hinting as to how she has avoided being arrested for the last 15 years.

The Daily News reported Gristina revealed she had contacts in the NYPD, the DEA, the FBI and ICE, who would tip her off when suspicion was brewing.

In one of the taped conversations, she recounts an incident in 2008: 'My guy in the FBI called my partner in my land development business and
said, "You’d better tell your Scottish friend it’s time to leave the
country. And for quite a while".

'I had 15 minutes to pack my bags and grab my dog and get out of town.'

She fled to Canada, where she has a property, and stayed there until she was sure it was safe to return.

'My best friend is friends with the chief director of the FBI for the entire country,' she boasted.

The mother-of-four also claimed a friend in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a background check on her behalf.

'She looked up my green card, my passport number. I’m not on any federal list. And I’m not on any state list.'

Mr Walker added that other Morgan
Stanley employees knew Gristina, saying: 'She had plenty of other people
at Morgan Stanley, I don't know why they're talking about me.'

But he insisted his relationship with her was strictly personal and said: 'I never had any business dealings with her.'

He did not say whether or not he was under investigation by his employers or the authorities.

Morgan Stanley is waiting until the investigation is over before taking any further action against Mr Walker.

Another high-end hooker who claims she worked for Gristina has come out of the woodwork to reveal details of the type of operation allegedly run from the Upper East Side apartment.

The woman, who would only give her name as Lizzie, told the Daily News that the prostitution ring attracted everyone from club owners to royalty from all over the world and that women had to both look great, act professionally and lady like and be intelligent.

She said: 'I'm not a typical escort. I don't have big implants, I don't dress like a prostitute. I don't do drugs, I don't even smoke.'

Gristina screened all potential clients and chose only the best - though no one ever saw her or came into direct contact with her.

'Anna is very selective about the girls she has working for her,' Lizzie told the Daily News. 'But we never saw Anna.'

The only thing low rent about the operation was that all the money made - which she insisted had to be paid in cash - was kept in the microwave of the apartment the business allegedly operated from.

Racy pictures of Gristina emerged yesterday which show the
44-year-old posing half naked with her buff and bare-chested third
husband.

The
photo of the British-born mother-of-four posing seductively with
husband Kelvin Gorr is a far cry from the plump and matronly figure she
posed in the Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The photo, which was posted on a high
school reunion website and Facebook, shows her
husband draping a protective arm across his older wife.

Animal lover: The 44-year-old posted photos on
her Friends Reunited profile of her with chickens and her pet pigs. She
also loved to dress up her pit-bull dogs

Double life: The suburban home Gristina and Kelvin Gorr live in with their son Nicholas and their pigs and dogs in Monroe, upstate New York

Unusual pet: One of the six pot-bellied pigs Gristina keeps at her home, which houses many rescue animals

She
would boast to her old friends in the Scottish village of Kirkliston,
where she grew up, that she was in New York 'building an empire'.

'I'm
a CEO, its takes a lot of work', she wrote to one friend, according to
the New York Daily News.

On her LinkedIn profile she cites her
profession as an Internet marketer, which seems to be the front she used
to most people to cover up her seedy double life.

But friends at home in Scotland believed she was running a temp agency for secretaries, it has emerged.

A close friend from Edinburgh said: ‘When she married [second husband] Dario, she brought him over for a visit and we all thought “She’s fallen on her feet there.”

‘We thought she was doing okay but we had no idea she was earning so much. She just said it was a temping agency for secretaries and things like that.

‘She must have been leading a double life. If it’s true, she has fooled everyone, even her closest friends.’

Meanwhile, high-ranking
members of the NYPD, Morgan Stanley and other powerful figures from the
political, legal and entertainment worlds are scrambling to cover their
tracks before any more information on the alleged brothel comes to
light.

It emerged on Tuesday the 44-year-old has many powerful friends and contacts who have helped
to protect her - and themselves - in the last 15 years, which is the
length of time her prostitution empire has allegedly been up and
running.

The high life she led on the Upper East Side could scarcely contrast more with her upbringing in Scotland. According to a relative in Edinburgh, Gristina struggled to cope with the knowledge that she was adopted and disliked her adoptive mother, Annie.

When she was 15, she was left bereft by the death of her adoptive father, jobbing gardener John Tennant, from lung cancer at the age of 57.

A ‘rebellious child’, she ran away from her mother, who was a maid, and the family’s bungalow on the edge of Kirkliston, in Edinburgh. Some years later, she abandoned the country altogether for the U.S. - without even a word to her family.

Claims: Irma Nici said she worked for Gristina
for six months in 2002 and confirmed she had well-placed law-enforcement
sources tipping her off about planned stings

The relative, who did not want to be
named, said: ‘She was adopted aged four months, and during her childhood
was incredibly close to her adoptive father.

‘But her father’s death was a traumatic blow to her. She was lost after he died. She felt pretty much on her own.

‘She didn’t have a very good relationship with her adopted mother. There was a clash of personalities, you could say.

‘She left home when she was about 16
years old, and spent some time in Edinburgh and in Glasgow and then she
upped and left to start a new life in the States.’

Gristina ‘wouldn’t toe the line or do
as she was told’ and was ‘quite a mixed-up child, often very
secretive,’ said the relative, adding: ‘She wasn’t particularly
glamorous as a teenager. She was quite a good looking girl, but no
beauty queen.’

Gristina, the youngest of six
children but the only one who was adopted, carried a ‘chip on her
shoulder’, especially after her older siblings left home, and tried
several times to trace her biological parents. Her adoptive mother died
in 1995.

The relative said: ‘I know for a fact
that if her dad was here, if he was alive, he would be the first on the
plane to stand by her side. I would like to be there for her. I don’t
care what she has done. She is still part of our family.’

Since
the scandal came to light on Tuesday, NYPD sergeant Richard Wall has
already been ordered to appear before the Internal Affairs Bureau with
his memo book logging his work for the past five years, according to the
New York Post.

He was
allegedly seen making repeated trips to the Manhattan apartment that is
believed to have housed 'Madam' Gristina’s brothel.

Past call girls and
sources close to the illicit business are now coming out of the woodwork
to provide further details of the 'empire' Gristina has allegedly been
able to run undetected until now.

A source told the Post she
employed Penthouse and Playboy models to service millionaire and
billionaire clients including hedge funders, CEOs and real-estate
moguls.

Intimate photos: According to friends, Gristina met third husband Kelvin Gorr dancing at a club near Monticello in the Catskills and swept him off his feet

High-class escort
Irma Nici - who famously claimed to have slept with David Beckham and
Eliot Spitzer - told the Post she worked for Gristina for six months in
2002 and confirmed she had well-placed law-enforcement sources tipping
her off about undercover stings and investigations.

The call girl, from Bosnia, told the paper: 'She always did say she had someone giving her a heads up. When the Fleur d'Elite brothel was
busted, she was laughing because she had inside information.

'Everyone was scared when the other agencies went down. But not her.'

Yesterday,
Gristina's attorney was asked about his client's 'little black book'
and who may be in there. But he told Good Day New York he never asked
her about a so-called black book and 'it doesn't exist, as far as I'm
concerned'.

Peter J. Gleason said: 'It's irrelevant to me if there's a black book or not.

'She's not admitting to anything, except that she is a loving, kind mother who was ripped away from her four children.

'She’s
a kid who came from Scotland with just the clothes on her back and made
her way in this country. She lived the American dream.'

He
also said the prosecution has not yet shared with the defense team any
information or allegations of any activity involving minors or police
protection, according to the Post.

Gristina's
current husband also denies any allegations against his wife and
revealed the children are devastated by recent events.

Though he wouldn't address the criminal charges, he said: 'But there has never been any violence, any drugs or any underage girls. Never.'

He
said the couple's nine-year-old son Nicholas thought his mother was
dead and wrote a letter to her 'in heaven' but since being told the
truth is 'feeling better'.

One of Gorr's brothers is a detective in Sullivan County, and his other is a cop in Liberty, New York.

Steamy: Gristina proudly showed off pictures of her younger hunky husband posing half naked with her on a school reunion website

Meanwhile,
her alleged accomplice in the business Jaynie Baker, 30, from Brooklyn,
is still wanted by police for questioning after they were tipped off
she may have been sending customers to Gristina's brothel.

The
pretty blonde claims to work for New York dating company VIP Life,
which legitimately supplies wealthy clients with well-to-do ladies who
are looking for love.

She has reportedly fled to Los Angeles.

Anna's daughter Noelanie from her first marriage is said to be devastated by her mother's arrest

Her
Facebook page says she co-hosted a fundraiser for a Texas-based animal
shelter called Shelby Shelter with Gristina last year at a West Village
night club.

The 30-year-old acts as a contractor
who refers men to VIP Life, for which she receives a finder's fee. The
agency only lists men who are serious about long-term relationships and
shuns women who are only interested in men for their money.

Founder of VIP Life Lisa Clampitt told DNAInfo Baker was a 'sweet young woman' who would never be involved in anything illegal.

But
sources told the Post Baker was Gristina's way out and that she wanted
to turn her illegal prostitution business into something more
legitimate, pairing rich men with high-class escorts, models who were to
be the 'gold standard of escort services'.

The source said: 'It was all about her moving on with her life. She wanted out.'

It
also emerged she only accepted cash for her girls so as not to leave
any paper trail. Some high-end escorts cost $2,000 per hour. To take the
girls away for a weekend cost $25,000.

Sources said Gristina took a 40 per cent cut of all earnings, making herself more than $10million over 15 years. At one stage she had more than 50 girls working for her.

Her girls were known to be the best of the best and 'worth every penny' of the high price they commanded.

Carefully
selected so they didn't look like hookers and could participate in an
intellectual conversation, she banned drinking, drugs and strippers.

The
mother-of-four was also said to detest the idea of under-age
prostitution, according to the New York Post, though it has been alleged
that at least one minor was involved.

She
had to be placed under protective custody at Riker's Island prison
because the other women heard she had exploited underage girls.

Suspect: Jaynie Mae Baker, 30, is wanted by police for questioning as they believe she may have been involved in the prostitution ring

Accomplice: Jaynie Baker's profile on the VIP Life's website, for which she finds eligible wealthy bachelors in exchange for a fee

More details of the double life
'madam' Gristina was living paint two very different pictures - one of
an animal-loving, charitable, suburban soccer mom, and the other of a
shrewd high-end madam and professional business woman.

Neighbours
at her sprawling two-story farmhouse in rural Monroe - where she lives
with her third husband Kelvin Gorr, their son Nicholas, six pot-bellied
pigs and two pitbulls - called her a typical soccer mom who loved
animals.

They said the
family kept to themselves and led an unassuming life. The 44-year-old is
thought to have carried out most of her work from home.

One neighbour said: 'I am shocked to hear she has been involved in this kind of activity.

'She
just seemed like a normal mom who would wear jeans and a flannel shirt,
though she had that strange obsession with pigs, I knew she was
involved in a lot of charity work with local farms and shelters.

'We
knew she had some business in New York and would go there for meetings
from time to time, but she always said she hated going to the city and
would rush back to be with her family and animals.'

At
the time of her arrest she was in the midst of
coordinating a major rescue of 59 pigs from Florida, Lana Hollenback, of
the Tennessee-based Forgotten Angels Rescue & Education Center told DNAInfo.

Happier times: The 'madam's third wedding in Las Vegas to Kelvin Gorr approximately ten years ago

Fake France: The couple posed for their wedding
photographs in front of a replica Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas, right, and
with her friends and bridesmaids Lana and Lisa, left

Soon after she arrived in the
U.S. the-then Miss Tennant married her first husband Fernando Pak, to
whom she had two daughters Suzanna and Noelanie. She was divorced by the
time she was 24.

Her
second husband, Italian-born engineer Dario Gristina - whose name she
still uses - was arrested in 1998 for soliciting a prostitute in
Manhattan.

It was the same year the couple divorced, according to the New York Daily News. They have one son, Stefano.

Mr
Gristina is now a Conservative Republican Candidate for NYS Assembly
and said he was surprised when he heard the news about his ex-wife.

According
to friends, she met current husband Kelvin Gorr, a realtor, while at a
club in the Catskills, where she is said to have swept him off his feet.

They
had a rushed Las Vegas marriage and pictures on her Friends Reunited
website show the couple standing in front of a replica Eiffel Tower - he
in a black tux and she in a flowing white gown.

They have one son together, Nicholas, nine.

Family affair: Gristina, far right, with her two daughters from her first marriage Noelanie and Suzanna with their step dad Kelvin Gorr

Toyboy: Third husband Kelvin Gorr with their son Nicholas. Sources of the couple say she wooed him after meeting in a bar and they married in Las Vegas

Extended family: Daughter Noelanie from her first marriage to Fernando Pak and son Stefano from her second marriage to Dario Gristina

Gristina was ordered to remain in
custody and bail kept at $2million yesterday by a Manhattan judge who
deemed her to be a high-flight risk.

It came after prosecutors suggested they would be
likely attempt to stop embarrassing revelations about themselves coming
to light, rather let justice run its course.

SCOTTISH ROOTS

Gristina was just five months old when she was adopted in 1968 by an older couple, Scottish gardener John Tennant and his wife, Annie, a maid, who already had five children.

She grew up in a tiny village close to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh called Kirkliston which was nicknamed Cheesetwon.

When she left for the U.S. after high school, she is believed to have cut ties with her family.

Sister-in-law Gwen Tennant told the New York Daily News: 'I’m not surprised to hear she is involved in this. We really have nothing to do with her any more.

'She moved away and never bothered.'

Gristina attended Queensferry High school and boasted to old high school friends she was 'building an empire'.

The
court also heard that British-born Gristina, known in the industry as
'Anna Scotland', had a fund specially set up to help her flee justice.

The 44-year-old, who appeared wearing handcuffs,
managed only a weak smile to her husband in the gallery as she made a
ten-minute appearance in Manhattan’s Supreme Court yesterday, and blew
him a kiss as she was led back to the cells.

She also appeared anxious and tried to hide her face from photographers, according to DNAInfo.

Wearing
a herringbone pattern black and white jacket and black trousers, her
blonde hair was unkempt and she looked more like a librarian than a
wealthy vice madam.

She has pleaded not guilty to one count of prostitution in the third degree and will now face a trial.

Husband of ten years Kelvin Gorr told the New York
Daily News as he left court yesterday: 'We are just a great family... and my wife means everything
to me. I feel heartbroken.'

During the hearing Gristina’s lawyer
Richard Siracusa sought to have the $2million she would have to post if
she wanted bail lowered in
exchange for her wearing an ankle bracelet.

So far she has not posted the huge sum and is being held in the notorious Riker’s Island prison in New York.

Discussions: The 'Manhattan Madam' talks to her lawyers in the New York criminal court yesterday as she was ordered to be held on charges of promoting prostitution

Business: The East 78th Street Manhattan apartment she had allegedly been running a brothel from for the last 15 years

Mr Siracusa said: 'My client has
extremely high bail. She has no record, she has four children...she has a
home for rescued animals.

'For
someone who came into court charged with one count of criminal
prostitution this is far in excess of what would be necessary to keep
her coming back to court.

'The District Attorney has her
passport...The $1m to $2m bail puts her in a special category as some
one who is a heinous criminal and that carried over when she goes into
the jails.

'It is not an easy existence there.'

Peter Gleason, left, co-attorney for Anna Gristina who is charged with promoting prostitution, is joined by private investigator Vincent Parco

Charles Linehan, prosecuting for the Manhattan District Attorney, told the court that 'the risk of flight is very high here' and that nothing had changed from Gristina’s last court appearance in February.

He said: 'She has high-worth individuals she counts among her friends and clients that we believe have an interest in not having this case go forward and are in a position to help her flee the jurisdiction.

'We have evidence she has money squirreled away so that in the event of this happening she could use to flee the jurisdiction. The risk of flight is very high here.'

He added that during a previous police investigation - apparently a reference to the 2008 prostitution bust which snared former New York governor Eliot Spitzer - she had fled to Montreal where she has an apartment.

Kristin Davis, a New York madam who supplied Spitzer with prostitutes, has alleged it was the former governor himself who tipped off someone working for Gristina’s business, Fleur d’Elite, about a sting on escort agencies – prompting the British woman to flee temporarily to Canada.

Linehan explained it was thought she would do the same ‘at the moment’ she was discovered, although she had been arrested before being able to do so.

Judge Juan Merhcan agreed there was a 'significant' risk of her fleeing and ordered she remain in custody.

He said: 'It seems that $2million bail and $1million cash is appropriate given the risk of flight so I am not going to modify the bail.'

Gristina, a suburban soccer mom who moved to New York 20 years ago from her native Edinburgh, was arrested after a five-year investigation during which
undercover police taped more than 100 hours of audio where she bragged
about her high-end clients, how she had contacts in law enforcement who
would tip her off and even how she used underage girls for some of the
trysts, according to explosive court documents.

The five-year-long investigation was run by a Manhattan district attorney's office unit that pursues cases against police and other uniformed city workers, according to a transcript of her February 23 arraignment.

Neighbours say a steady stream of young women - usually of Eastern European descent - would come and go from the second-floor apartment, as did a number of suited business men.

Jailed: Gristina is being held at Rikers Island prison on $2million bond and is considered a flight risk because she has a British passport and a home in Canada

Gristina boasted she had 'business contacts world-wide' which are thought to include powerful
politicians, top-law enforcement, influential lawyers, bankers,
entertainment execs and Fortune 500 businessmen, according to the New York Post.

The
DA also said Gristina had not reported any income to the government in a
number of years so she will likely be charged with tax evasion as well.

Second husband: Dario Gristina, a Conservative Republican Candidate for NYS Assembly, said he divorced Anna years ago and knew nothing of the allegations

When
she was arrested on February 22, she was meeting with an unnamed investment
banker at his Morgan Stanley office for a meeting to try to raise money
to finance what prosecutors believe may be
an online start-up that would match prostitutes with wealthy men.

Investigator Parco claimed she had been trying to set up a legitimate dating website aimed at rich clients.

Minors were involved in some of the encounters Gristina arranged, the prosecutor said.

He
cited information from at least one eyewitness account - a confidential
informant who was one of Gristina’s prostitutes. Defence lawyers
dismissed reports that she had provided underage girls as ‘disgusting’.

According to the Daily News, the escort service offered clients a three-tiered pricing system.

Costs
ranged from $1,000 for the 'Dream Model girls', $1,500 for 'Calendar
Girls, fashion models and budding actors', and $2,000 and up for the
'Ultimate Elite Model' category.

Mohammed Azad, 32, who owns a restaurant in the building where Gristina allegedly operated her brothel, told the Post: 'I see people in and out coming over
here, sometimes many in one day. I always see young
fashionable women, always under 30. They don’t live here.'

Her ex-husband Dario Gristina, a Conservative Republican Candidate for NYS Assembly, told the Daily News: 'We divorced a long time ago, I am surprised.'

Italian-born Gristina married second wife Teresa ten years ago. He has six children but it is unclear how many of them are shared with his first wife.

Do you know this woman? Call the news desk on 020 7938 6000 or email news@dailymail.co.uk